Abstract

How have Europe's mainstream political parties responded to the long-term decline in voter
loyalties?

What are the consequences of this change in the electoral markets in which parties now
operate?

Popular disengagement, disaffection, and withdrawal on the one hand, and increasing popular
support for protest parties on the other, have become the hallmarks of modern European politics.
This book provides an excellent account of how political parties in Western Europe are perceiving
and are responding to these contemporary challenges of electoral dealignment. Each chapter employs
a common format to present and compare the changing strategies of established parties and party
systems in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland. The result is
an invaluable portrait of the changing electoral environment and how parties are interacting with
each another and voters today. Political Parties and Electoral Change is essential reading for
anybody seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary electoral politics and of the challenges
facing west European party systems.

Luciano Bardi is Professor of Comparative Politics and International Relations at the
University of Pisa. He is author and co-author of numerous books and articles on European Union
politics and institutions and of several essays on Italian parties and on the Italian party system,
as well as co-editor of ltalian Politics. Mapping the Future (1998) and editor of Forma
partito e sistemi di partita tra due secoli (2004).

Lars Bille is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of
Copenhagen. He is the author of Partier i Forandring (1997) and Fra Valgkamp tit Valgkamp
(1998) and co-editor of Partiernes Medlemmer (2003). His English language publications
include artic1es in West European Politics and Party Politics.

Kris Deschouwer is Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Brussels.
He is author of Organiseren of Bewegen. De evolutie van de Belgisehe partijstrueturen sinds 1960
(1993), De worteis van de democratie (1996) and co-author of Culture, Institutions
and Economie Development. A Study of Eight European Regions (2003), and co-editor of Party
Elites in Divided Societies (2001). His artic1es have appeared in European Journal of
Political Research, West European Politics, Regional and Federal Studies, Environmental Politics
and in many edited volumes, inc1uding Party Organizations (1992), How Parties
Organize (1994) and Political Parties in Democratic Societies (2002).

Andrew Knapp is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Reading. He is
author of Le Gaullisme après de Gaulle (1996) and of Parties and the Party System
in France: a Disconnected Democracy? (2004), and co-author, with Yves Mény, of
Government and Politics in Western Europe (3rd edition, 1998) and, with Vincent Wright, of
The Government and Politics of France (4th edition, 2001).

Peter Mair is Professor of Comparative Politics at Leiden University in the
Netherlands, and is co-editor of West European Politics. He is co-author of
Representative Government in Modern Europe (3rd edition, 2000) and author of Party System
Change (1997). He is co-editor of The Enlarged European Union (2002).

Michael Marsh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science,
Trinity College, University of Dublin. He has written extensivelyon parties and elections, both in
Ireland and elsewhere. He is the co-author of Days of Blue Loyalty: the PolWes of Membership of
Fine Gael (2002), co-editor of How Ireland Voted 2002 (2003), and co-director of the
2002 Irish election study. His articles have appeared in journals such as European Journal of
Political Research, Party Politics, and Electoral Studies.

Wolfgang C. Müller is Professor of Political Science at the University of
Mannheim and previously taught at the University of Vienna. He is senior author of Die
österreichischen Abgeordneten, Individuelle Präferenzen und politsches Verhalten
(2001) and co-editor of Policy, Office, or Votes? How Political Parties in Western Europe
Make Hard Decisions (1999), Coalition Governments in Western Europe (2000) (both with
Kaare Strøm), and Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies (2003)
(with Kaare Stmm and Torbjörn Bergman).

Karina Pedersen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of
Copenhagen. She is the author of Party Membership Linkage. The Danish Case (2003).

Fritz Plasser is Professor of Political Science at the University of lnnsbruck. He is
author of Parteien unter Stress (1987), co-editor of The Austrian Party System
(1989), Wählerverhalten und Parteienwettbewerb (1995), Wahlkampf und
Wählerentscheidung (1996), Das österreich ische Wahlverhalten (2000),
Wahlverhalten in Bewegung (2003) and several other books. His English language publications
include Global Political Campaigning (2002) as weIl as articles in West European
Politics, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics and edited volumes.

Susan E. Scarrow is Professor ofPolitical Science at the University ofHouston. She is
author of Parties and Their Members (1996), editor of Perspectives on Political Parties
(2002), and co-editor of Democracy Transformed? (2003). Her articles have appeared in
such journals as the European Journal ofPolitical Research, Comparative Political Studies, Party
Politics, and German Politics.

Peter A. Ulram is Director of the Department for Political Research at the Fessel +
GtK Institut and Associate Professor at the University of Vienna. He is author of Hegemonie und
Erosion (1990), co-author of Das österreichische Politikverständnis (2002),
and co-editor of Wahlverhalten in Bewegung (2003). His English language publications have
appeared in West European Politics, Party Politics, and in edited volumes.

Paul Webb is Professor of Politics at the University of Sussex. His
research interests [ocus on representative democracy, particularly party and electoral politics.
The author or editor of several volumes, including The Modern British Party System (2000)
and Political Parties in Advaneed Industrial Societies (2002), he is a co-editor of both
Party Politics and Representation.